Queso 'Qontroversy'

Landmark Austin restaurant boiling mad over Fort Worth queso controversy

Much ado about queso.

Photo courtesy of Matt's

Queso is a topic sufficiently serious in Texas that it's the subject of a new lawsuit between two restaurants. On June 28, Austin's own Matt's El Rancho filed a lawsuit against Horseshoe Hill Cafe, a Fort Worth restaurant owned by chef Grady Spears, for featuring its trademarked Bob Armstrong Dip on its menu.

Bob Armstrong Dip is the loaded queso named for former Texas Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong, who was a regular at Matt’s El Rancho. Back in the '70s, proprietor Matt Martinez Jr. supposedly created a special queso per Armstrong's request, souping it up by adding guacamole and crumbled taco beef.

Obviously Matt's did not invent queso. But the restaurant is well known for the dish: Southern Foodways Alliance, a group that documents food in the South, did a small film on it, as didBon Appetit magazine. Matt's trademarked it in 2015.

That said, Spears has a history of putting "Bob Armstrong dip" on menus at some of his prior restaurants, such as Grady's Line Camp Steakhouse.

According to KXAN, the lawsuit states that Horseshoe Hill's "Bob Armstrong Dip and Chips" is too similar to El Rancho's Bob Armstrong Dip, and alleges "trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and unjust enrichment."

Matt's El Rancho seeks monetary damages and a ban against Spears using "Bob Armstrong Dip" in the future.

The lawsuit also includes a copy of a letter indicating that Matt's tried to keep the matter out of court, offering to resolve the matter if Spears stopped using the name.

It also says that Matt's sent Horseshoe Hill multiple cease-and-desist letters and verbal warnings; apparently Spears did not respond.

However, since news of the lawsuit emerged, Horseshoe Hill Cafe's website has been updated, with a newly-labeled item called "Famous Lawsuit Dip."

And on June 30, Spears posted a link to the Dallas Morning News' story on the lawsuit on Facebook with a rather unrepentant-sounding introduction that says, "The Dip That Caused a Lawsuit."

He appears to be doubling down. On July 1, he posted an offer stating that he's "celebrating America with the 'Famous Lawsuit Dip,' $4 all week at Horseshoe Hill. Come and Get it!!"

tex-mex

Whoops

Michelin goofs on a few restaurants honored in first Texas guide

Kau Ba/Facebook

Houston's Kau Ba has been removed from the Michelin Guide.

Texans' reactions to the first Michelin Guide in the state have ranged from glowing to unimpressed, but a few notable mix-ups are more concrete than differences in taste. The November 11 ceremony honored more than 100 restaurants across the state, but at least two were in error. In Dallas the guide confused two restaurants with each other, and in Houston one of them had closed.

Starting in Dallas: The Guide's release announcing the list of restaurants who'd won awards included The Charles, an award-winning Italian restaurant in Dallas' Design District, as one of 57 restaurants that earned a "Recommended" rating.

The Charles is a surely deserving restaurant that opened in 2018, the first concept from acclaimed food & beverage group Duro Hospitality, which has since gone on to open other restaurants such as El Carlos Elegante, Sister, and Cafe Duro.

But the Guide got the wrong Charles: The real recipient was Mister Charles, a sibling Duro Hospitality restaurant that opened at 3219 Knox St. in early 2024.

The Charles specializes in Italian and Texas-inspired dishes.

Mister Charles features French and Italian-influenced dishes.

It wasn't just an incorrect name; it listed the accompanying (incorrect) address.

A spokesperson for Michelin Guide verified that Mister Charles was the winner and said that the listing of The Charles was a mistake.

“This was an internal error caused by our geolocation process. The problem will be corrected in the most expeditious manner,” the spokesperson said. The Guide website has since updated the list and replaced The Charles with Mister Charles.

Having a difference of opinion about a critic's choices is one thing — but having an error of this magnitude is something else entirely.

And blaming "geolocation" as the source of the error is a curious excuse. Geolocation refers to the ability to track the whereabouts of an electronic device using GPS, cell phone towers, WiFi access points or a combination of these.

The Houston mix-up was also disappointing, but only involved one restaurant: In a press release issued Thursday, November 14, the Guide announced that it had removed Montrose Vietnamese restaurant Kau Ba from the list of Bib Gourmand recipients.

The reason: "Upon further investigation, our team has discovered the restaurant has been permanently closed since our Inspection team's visits occurred," the statement reads.

As has been widely noted in local media, Kau Ba closed earlier this month. The restaurant’s Instagram account now belongs to Alora, which is described as “a fresh Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion concept inspired by travels to Saigon.” It is expected to open soon.

Open since 2018, Kau Ba served an innovative take on Vietnamese fare created by Nikki Tran. The restaurant built on the notoriety Tran had achieved after being featured in two Netflix series: Somebody Feed Phil and Ugly Delicious. It earned considerable acclaim, including a spot in the Houston Chronicle’s top 100 restaurants as recently as 2023 and a nomination for Best Neighborhood Restaurant in the 2021 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

The restaurant went through a number of iterations during its tenure. For three-and-a-half years, Tran partnered with Aya Sushi owners Minette Corpuz and Bruce Kish to oversee operations, but they parted ways in February 2023.

In an email sent to Houston Public Media, Tran expressed regret over Michelin's decision.

“But we understand and respect Michelin’s decision to remove Kau Ba from its selection,” Tran said to HPM. “Exercising an abundance of caution from a legal position, I am not able currently to share further details of our situation but I do hope to follow up soon with more information.”

“Until then, on behalf of the entire Kau Ba team, we want to thank the entire culinary community for the recognition and support,” Tran added. “Kau Ba is proud of the dishes we created and look forward to sharing very soon what’s next.”

Thankfully in Austin, things seem to be going okay. The capital city swept the competition with seven stars (one more than Houston now that the change has been made), and two green stars for sustainability — in fact, the only green stars in the state.

Austin also had four of the first-ever barbecue restaurants to be awarded stars. Houston also had one.

Austin's winning restaurants were Barley Swine, Craft Omakase, Hestia, Olamaie, InterStellar BBQ, John Bates, La Barbecue, Alison Clem, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue.

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